Posts Tagged ‘Kids’

Kids seem to have an endless supply of energy. They come back from school, run straight to practice, come back home and still want to play with their friends outside. Therefore, worrying about your kids having too much physical activity is not entirely surprising.

The sad reality is that most children aren’t getting nearly enough exercise to begin with. Their desire to run around is only a natural response to their increased energy levels, so in most cases you should just let them run their course.

Keep Your Kid Fit Year Round

With childhood obesity on the rise, more and more parents are looking for ways to keep their kids active and fit. The process starts at home with fridges and pantries that are devoid of the fat- and sugar-laden, processed foods that populate store shelves these days. Instead, parents must work a little harder to provide the nutritious and balanced meals that will give kids the energy they need to face each day without the spike and crash that comes from soda and sugary snacks.
But of course, diet is only part of the equation when it comes to the health of your kids. You also need to get them outdoors and running around if you want them to remain active and fit throughout their childhood and beyond. So here are just a few ways to pry them away from their video games and social media and get them on track for some physical fun.

Summer is the perfect time to get out of the house to enjoy some fresh air and exercise. Fitness is a lifelong investment that starts in childhood. Developing healthy fitness habits early promotes healthy behaviors, improves self-esteem and facilitates wellness throughout life.

Always remember that parents are the best role model for both inspiring an active fitness lifestyle, and also for promoting safety as a top priority in sports and recreation. The best thing parents can do for their kids, is to stay happy, healthy, and active.

Exercise Ideas for Toddlers

Children as young as two benefit from fitness activities. Toddlers like to explore and they play to learn more about their world. They prefer unstructured play such as running, swinging, climbing, kicking a ball, and playing in the sand box. Toddlers also enjoy interacting with peers to improve socialization skills.

If you drink milk, and you’re not a hard-gainer trying to pack on muscle mass, your milk should be low fat – skim or 1%. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said recently that nearly 73% of kids and teenagers consume milk, which is good, but then only around 20% of them tend to consume the low-fat variety. In fact, about 45% of them choose reduced-fat milk (2 percent), while 32% claim to regularly consume whole-fat milk.

I’ve been complaining about this for years, and I’m glad someone is finally echoing my sentiments. For babies and toddlers I can see using whole or 2% milk, because they need a ton of good nutrition to grow up strong. However, I have always believed that kids in pre-k, k, and elementary school should switch to 1% or skim milk. There really is no need to add extra milk fat into a child’s diet, not when American kids are clearly, on average, the most obese children in the world.

Researchers and experts collectively agree that the low consumption of low-fat milk implies that most kids and teenagers don’t live by the recommendations of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the American Academy of Pediatrics, who state that kids ages 2 and older should drink low-fat milk. Recent efforts by both First Lady Michelle Obama, and the Surgeon General promote the consumption of low-fat milk and water over sweetened beverages. Adhering to these suggestions will help you and your child avoid dangerous conditions such as obesity and diabetes.

Today’s society is keener on converting young athletes into peak performers overnight by just winning competitions. The people behind these young athletes i.e. parents and coaches, fail to understand that there is much more than just winning.

Peak performance is not only about winning a competition or two. The athletes should be able to perform well for a long while in their field of interest.

The training program thus, should comprise of a comprehensive plan that combines various elements pertaining to the body, mind and spirit, so as to improve the performance of the athletes both on and off the court. What are the factors to consider while devising such a training program?

This post was written back in 2008, but the poll didn’t get many votes and the post didn’t get any comments. Now that Project Swole has much more traffic and somewhat of a loyal community, I went and rewrote some of this piece and I’m re-posting it today so that we can get more comments and votes. I think it will be an interesting study into the training background of most Swole readers.

When and why did you first learn about exercising?

We all know how beneficial exercise is to maintaining a healthy body. Kids don’t usually know this and teenagers don’t usually care. Typically it is up to parents and schools to educate kids about exercise and nutrition, ’cause quite frankly they aren’t very likely to do it themselves.

I learned about exercising in junior high school when some of my friends started curling and bench pressing to build the “show muscles” for the girls. I even did some curling and bench pressing myself, but not more than a couple times a week, and I didn’t build any significant muscle mass. My real education in weight training came in high school… I’ll talk about that more below.

Apparently a study has turned up the adenovirus 36 (AD36) as a possible cause of childhood obesity. Adenovirus 36 (AD36) is also responsible for passing on the common cold. Supposedly that means we can now blame the common cold for the reason our children are fat!

After reading the results of the study, I’ve determined that AD36 could contribute to obesity in a small portion of obese children, but there’s no way that it is a leading cause of obesity in America. Read the post then let me know if you agree or disagree.

You think you have it bad? Maybe you do, but I’m sure 99.9% of your stories are not as unfortunate as what has happened to an 8 year old girl from Londonderry, NH named Bella Tucker.

Who is Bella Tucker?

Bella is an 8 year old third grader who was a budding gymnastics star, loved to ride her bike and listen to music, liked going to school and hanging out with her friends, and is now going to be confined to a wheelchair without her own arms and legs for the rest of her life.

A cute little girl with long blond hair, Bella attended South School Elementary in Londonderry, New Hampshire and was a talented member of the Phantom Gymnastics team. Maybe she will do those things again one day, but for now she is confined to a hospital bed at the Children’s Hospital in Boston. She and her family need all the help they can get.

What Happened to Bella Tucker?

Easter Sunday 2010 was going to be a fun-filled day with egg hunts, jelly beans, and Easter dinner with family. As the day progressed Bella began to feel under the weather; she eventually developed a fever and had the chills.

She went to bed early with what appeared to be flu symptoms, but woke up early in the morning with a fever of 103, complaining that her hands and feet were cold. Bella’s step-dad rushed her to the local emergency room, where doctors said she needed to be transferred by helicopter to Boston Children’s Hospital.

No one could have guessed what would happen next; Bella and her family would never be the same.

Surviving Streptococcus Pneumoniae Sepsis

With a temperature that peaked at a whopping 105.8 degrees, doctors at Boston Children’s Hospital initially figured she might have meningitis. They were wrong. Two days later Bella was diagnosed with streptococcus pneumoniae sepsis, a rare form of pneumonia that had stopped the flow of oxygen to her arms and legs.

With a 10% survival rate for streptococcus pneumoniae sepsis, the future did not look good.

Doctors placed Bella into a drug-induced coma, no one could be sure if she would ever regain consciousness. After 5 days she emerged from her coma, but her body had already sustained severe tissue damage.

In today’s “Tell Me Something I Don’t Know” category, I would like you to read about how bullies target obese kids. Um… no kidding, Sherlock.

I was bullied as a kid.

From 6th to 9th grade I really didn’t fit in anywhere. I was chubby, had acne, wore glasses, and I wasn’t any good in gym class. They called me names, drew nasty pictures of me, popular girls prank called me, and jocks punched me.

Looking back, I was probably one of the top 10 least popular kids in my class of 120 or so. It wasn’t any fun.

Bullying causes pain, anger, and resentment. So often in today’s society, we see so many acts of bullying the end in violence. Granted, I didn’t knife anyone, shoot anyone, or beat anyone up over it… but some kids do.

We need to educate our children and teach them how to avoid bullies, as well as how to avoid becoming a bully.

Strength Training is Good For Kids!

It’s official! After many long years of arguing with fools, I am validated! Based on hundreds of studies and thousands of hours of research, the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) and the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) have finally taken the position that age-appropriate resistance training is not only good for kids, but recommended.